7 - Philippe Coutinho - V1

[SeloBarca]

Coutinho is a great player and im glad to have him.
But hes also a "flow" type of player. He has very high tops, but very low lows.
You can also see it in players like Messi, Messi is unstopable when he gets into the flow, but can disapear when he hits a dip. Fortunally it doesnt happen that often.

Coutinho has been played out of position (for Barcelona)
He should play in the LAM position, like he does in Brazil. Hes a good dribbler and passer so those qualities suits that position much more.
Unfortunally, Rakitic has somthing on Valverde so we never get to see Busi-Arthur-Coutinho lineup.

 

[Gnidrologist]

That's the issue man. We should afford to play with an AM. We often played with an AM in the past, be it Iniesta, or Deco. Even if we had offensive weapons like Ronnie, Eto'o, Messi, Henry or others.

This. Playing with 3 pivots, two of whom can't run anymore, only because coach is too dumb to figure out how to defend against Girona, is not and objective, systemic problem. It's lack of brains in our manager. We always played with at least one mid, who is more offensive and advanced. Current heat maps will probably show that Busq and Rak are basically occupying the same spot most of the time and with Arthur, they all three are thronging around the middle, while Vidal is not the one, who can create either, he's useful for his constant mobility and tackling. So once again Messi has to drop deep to receive the ball and create everything (or sometimes Demb). That was the problem we were supposed to deal with with these last signings and Valverde has fucked up once again. Now, he just crowds the are with bodies and hopes shit doesn't hit the fan. That's his "tactics". Add to that utterly static non-system offensively, where he just expects our front 3 to do their own thing, while everybody just stands around with no movement or formation, and we are exposed as mediocre team worth a fortune, who will crash out from CL against the first competent first tier team.

 

[Barcilliant]

Coutinho is a great player and im glad to have him.
But hes also a "flow" type of player. He has very high tops, but very low lows.
You can also see it in players like Messi, Messi is unstopable when he gets into the flow, but can disapear when he hits a dip. Fortunally it doesnt happen that often.

Coutinho has been played out of position (for Barcelona)
He should play in the LAM position, like he does in Brazil. Hes a good dribbler and passer so those qualities suits that position much more.
Unfortunally, Rakitic has somthing on Valverde so we never get to see Busi-Arthur-Coutinho lineup.

Should be Coutinho, Vidal and Arthur.

 

[MagIX]

Have Liverpool missed him? No? Then there's your answer.

If anything they are doing substantially better with balance in the midfield.

They were leaking goals with him much like we were

Exactly.
Without him Liverpool reached the CL final and now they are leading the PL

 

[George_Costanza]

Have Liverpool missed him? No? Then there's your answer.

If anything they are doing substantially better with balance in the midfield.

They were leaking goals with him much like we were

They still leaked goals after he left, then they got the mighty VVD. So nothing to do with Coutinho.

 

[Ronaldinhobarca10]

You guys are such spoiled brats.

I think Real Madrid miss the luxury days of having James and Morata in the bench. Now they have Mariano and Vazquez.

Eriksen is not better than Cou, he wouldn't start for FCBarca, if he cant start for Spurs.

Of course Eriksen would start. Do you saw him playing ? He creates fucking chances like crazy. Eriksen Vidal Rakitic would be one of the strongest midfield in the world.

 

[khaled_a_d]

Should be Coutinho, Vidal and Arthur.

who is your DM? Because Vidal isn't really a DM in this team.

We always played with at least one mid, who is more offensive and advanced. Curr

Offensive? sure. Advanced? no way. Iniesta/Deco/Xavi/Rakitic were never advanced player like Coutinho. All played within themselves
And all were very good defensively. Deco and Iniesta were truly underrated in that regard, Coutinho is yet to show he can play that without 2 players babysitting him.

So once again Messi has to drop deep to receive the ball and create everything (or sometimes Demb).

Messi can have prime Xavi & Iniesta again, and he will still drop deep again. This is how his game has evolved in past years before EV even arrived
And Messi being Messi, makes Coutinho in midfield bad tactics too. How many times you see pure AM playing with second striker this days? because this is what you are asking for when it almost never happens.

That was the problem we were supposed to deal with with these last signings and Valverde has fucked up once again.

EV surely fucked up when he accepted 2 club record breaking signings consecutively to be done on wingers, and to pretend that since one of them (actually both) play AM as his 2nd position he can fit in Barca midfield as Iniesta replacement.

 

[EdHardy]

Have Liverpool missed him? No? Then there's your answer.

If anything they are doing substantially better with balance in the midfield.

They were leaking goals with him much like we were

That really ignores the fact that they now have Alisson, Van Dijk, Keita, Fabinho and the rise of both Robertson and Trent. Or in the case of Barca, the injury of Umtiti.

 

[clemente]

lmao he played 20 min, did 1 mistake and people here crying like he scored 2 own goals. The fatass potentially blocked his goal and its 2nd game in a row now

 

[Messigician]

That really ignores the fact that they now have Alisson, Van Dijk, Keita, Fabinho and the rise of both Robertson and Trent. Or in the case of Barca, the injury of Umtiti.

It ignores nothing. Liverpool have barely played woth Keita and fabonho this season and coutinho was playing at the same time as Van dijk and they were still leaking goals.

Umtiti waa fit when Coutinho was playing midfield with us. He is the reason we tried Arthur and we fixed our goals problen overnight.

Obviously EV sees this too so he benched coutinho. Liverpool haven't missed him and neither have we.

As a winger Dembele is better. We don't have the system for a number 10 luxury playee that simple.

Hopefully NeyNey takes him off our hands so we can secure De Ligt and De Jong players who do fit the system

This is a hard pill to swallow but deal with it

 

[EdHardy]

It ignores nothing. Liverpool have barely played woth Keita and fabonho this season and coutinho was playing at the same time as Van dijk and they were still leaking goals.

Umtiti waa fit when Coutinho was playing midfield with us. He is the reason we tried Arthur and we fixed our goals problen overnight.

Obviously EV sees this too so he benched coutinho. Liverpool haven't missed him and neither have we.

As a winger Dembele is better. We don't have the system for a number 10 luxury playee that simple.

Hopefully NeyNey takes him off our hands so we can secure De Ligt and De Jong players who do fit the system

This is a hard pill to swallow but deal with it

When is this that Coutinho was playing while they had Van Dijk? :/

I don't even care much for Coutinho to be honest, and I felt his signing wasn't well thought out, but your argument is very simplistic, that's all. Liverpool haven't improved defensively because they sold Coutinho, they improved because they have Alisson & Van Dijk, plus Trent and Robertson have proved to be major upgrades on Clyne/Milner/Moreno. In recent weeks they've started to incorporate Fabinho and Keita and they are looking even more solid. To say they sold Coutinho and improved defensively, or we benched him for Arthur (who is coincidentally on the bench now too) and improved defensively is very false. Umtiti has been injured and Pique has been in good form recently but that wasn't always the case, Semedo is also more defensively solid than Roberto. It's not just as simple as bench/sell Coutinho and the defence improves.

While I think another signing would have been better at the time, you don't just break the record for a signing and sell him a year later. Towards the end of last season he was the 2nd best player in the team, and he has shown glimpses of what he's capable of in his 11 months so far. It's up to Valverde to find a way to bring him in and Coutinho himself to work his way out of this slump and be more adaptable.

 

[khaled_a_d]

and coutinho was playing at the same time as Van dijk and they were still leaking goals.t

No, they bought VVD and sold Coutinho in same market, may be they were available in a game or two.
VVD played a role, but their midfield became way more compact and looked immense without him

 

[BBZ8800]

Whenever I am sad, I open some threads here and when I see posts: EV is an idiot, we need to play Coutinho-Arthur-Busi midfield, you guys make me smile.

Good morning and thanks

 

[Gnidrologist]

Whenever i'm sad i watch current Barca play with these strong, physical players and forgot the source of my sadness as the new one overshadows it.

 

[Dado]

i think this man regrets the day he left Liverpool. Its turning out just like Klopp said to him in Pool he would have been a legend (kinda like Salah is heading to be now if he sticks around) in Barca he is just one of ....